I am writing a package that needs to write at various times to an external file. For that I am using the \newwrite\mywriter and \immediate\openout\mywriter method. I know to use \closeout when done with the file, and I do this. What I am wondering: Does LaTeX close open files, if the process exits prematurely with errors before \closeout is reached? If it doesn't (and I think it doesn't), is there something I should do in my code to make it safer in this case, and is there something I can do to close the files before I run LaTeX again?
1 Answer
The source of TeX tells differently from your belief.
See modules 1332 and 1333 in tex.web. Only files open for input are not closed.
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Thank you so much for the look under the hood ... and for your patience with a newbie. (Warning: newbie taking the bait ...) so, I wonder what is different about files open for input. Nov 3, 2016 at 11:04
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@celticflute Since the premature exit (fatal error or user's choice) can happen at an arbitrary nesting level of
\input, it's quite hard to go back, but it's quite probable that the operating system will take care of the issue.– egregNov 3, 2016 at 11:34 -
Ah, got it. OK, I shall have faith in the OS and move on to creating a useful product (a package for building a Celtic music tunebook, BTW). Thanks again. Nov 3, 2016 at 12:32
\inputing it later have worked fine. I just have been doing a lot of Python scripting lately, where, though the garbage collection is pretty robust, it is still not a good idea to leave files open.try ... finalllyconstructs and the like are great for cleanup, but we don't seem to have such things in LaTeX. I shall not be so hesitant to drill into TeX source the next time I encounter such an input/output question.